Thai Dye

I feel like one of my roles in this family is to scour Facebook like it’s my full-time job. I look for local classes, workshops, opportunities, excursions… basically anything that can add to our well-rounded education. Sometimes I fall into a rabbit hole reading about the worst mistaken text someone ever sent or watching a slideshow of funny rabbit pictures. #sidebenefits

The latest class I discovered was through a local studio, teaching people how to dye fabric using indigo. Indigo is a plant native to the tropics and has been used for centuries to dye clothing. The original “blue” in “blue jeans” was indigo, although our workshop leader tells us that most dyes are synthetic now. But since indigo is native to Thailand and the surrounding area, we were able to attend a 3- day workshop where we started from the very beginning – harvesting the plant – and over the course of the class we dyed our own fabric! It was a really interesting class. I’m going to tell you about it in pictures…

Day 1: We got up early to beat the heat and were taken out to some fields outside of Chiang Mai where the indigo was growing. It’s a fairly hearty plant, resistant to most diseases and pests, as long as you protect it when it’s first growing. Evidently, snails like the young plant but leave the mature plant alone.

We actually had to work! This is Zoe harvesting the indigo. I was very uncertain about doing the cutting of the plant because they only harvest a few times a year and I did not want to screw it up. We were supervised, for the most part. I felt like our lack of green thumb was pretty obvious though.

We went back to Chiang Mai to the studio and now we had to get rid of the big stems and prepare the leaves for soaking, which is when the color is removed. At this point, we have seen no blue colors at all, only green leaves. #whoknew

This was not a complicated process but the leaves make your skin itchy. We had to wrap it into bundles that would soak in the water. The bundles were important because they would be heavier than just the leaves so everything would stay submerged in water. The blue color is extracted from the leaves.

Preparing to soak the leaves. A rare sight of teamwork among sisters. And dirt on Haley.

We filled up the large garbage bins with the indigo leaf bundles and then filled it with water to soak overnight. You could also leave them for weeks, but the minimum is overnight. The warmer the better. Each tub held about 12-15 kilos of plant. Our harvest that morning netted 80 kilos of plant, which the studio owner said was very good.

We had to lay large rocks on top of the leaf bundles to keep them from floating above the water. They needed to be completely submerged. This was the bin that Zoe, Haley and I worked on.

Day 2: preparing our fabric for dying. This is where we got to choose different techniques to create patterns. Zoe is wrapping her fabric around some PVC pipe to create her pattern. It’s pretty much like tie dye: you restrict the dye from getting to some parts of your fabric and those parts stay white.

Break time, she found a cat. Of course.

Haley is stitching her fabric to create her pattern. Be proud, Nanna! You are the one who taught her to sew!

We also have to tend to the leaves on day 2. After taking out the leaf bundles, which will be composted, we added lime. Then we had to do this scoop-and-pour technique for 30 straight minutes. This allows for the oxidation of our water. The girls and I took turns. This process hurts your back! Note the color is greenish here.

This is later in the 30-minute process. Notice how much darker the liquid is now. We were taught that you had to listen to the bubbles to know when the oxidation was complete. I tried to point out to the girls how listening is so important but they weren’t listening.

While the girls were pouring I was at the snack table. This is sticky rice and sweet potato cooked in bamboo leaves. They had bean and banana with rice too. Oh wow it was delicious. And I’m not just saying that because I was cheating on my potato diet.

Day 3: Now it was time to remove the last of the leaves and residue by straining the water mixture through this fabric. The remainder is what is used to make the dye vat. Once you have the dye paste you can keep it for several years to use for dying. Zoe and a different cat are supervising.

The studio owner is teaching us how to make the vat. The paste is mixed with ash water, fruit sugars or rice whiskey, and left to ferment. After a few days of stirring and adding sugars, it’s ready to dye with. We used a previously-made vat, so we didn’t have to wait several days.

Also on day 3, Haley is finishing up the fabric stitching. Look closely and you’ll see she’s multi-tasking: petting a cat AND working on her stitching.

Almost ready for dying! Wetting the fabric.

You submerge your fabric at least 3 times in the dye vat. You leave it in for about a minute each time. In between dunks you have to air it out for a few minutes. During which time you have to itch your eye so you take a selfie too.

Zoe is rinsing her fabric after her 3 dunks.

I had 4 different fabric pieces I was doing so I was taking a while to get all the way through the process.

The fabric is done and drying! Zoe loved the smell of the indigo, but Haley said it’s going to haunt her dreams forever.